A thread on the strike:

The deal is glorious, and so damn gratifying. Unlike previous negotiations, there were significant if not groundbreaking gains in every single area: theatrical, streaming, ad-supported streaming, linear television, foreign residuals, writing teams. The ‘black box’ of the streamers has been cracked open: we now have a viewership-based streaming bonus. The Guild can regulate the use of AI on MBA-covered projects.

My father, Howard Rodman Sr., worked in one-hour episodic network drama in the 1960s, notably on Route 66 and Naked City. There were no writers rooms then in one-hour drama. Only two people, called "story editors,” and a pool of freelances. That was it.

🧵1/8 The two of them, my father and Sterling Silliphant, wrote or rewrote every single episode.

You can only imagine — meaning you can't imagine — the pressure they were under.

2/8

THREAD:

In 1985, as a cub reporter for American Film, I wrote a piece on the death of Orson Welles. I interviewed his de facto widow, Oja Kodar; Patrick Terrail of Ma Maison; cinematographer Gary Graver; Henry Jaglom— And of course, Peter Bogdanovich. Peter held court in his magnificent estate in lower Bel Air. He dropped names (pointing to his unbuttoned cuffs, he said, "Kate taught me this," knowing I would know that he of course meant Hepburn). He did devastatingly accurate imitations.

THREAD! 1/8

Crony capitalism? Nah! See: the wheel isn't fixed. 2/8

Rich and poor alike come, hat in hand, to beg for relief in a troubled economy.